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Saturday, August 9, 2014

50 Things Barack Obama Has Done Wrong

Townhall.com ^ | August 9, 2014 | John Hawkins
Why would anyone dislike Barack Obama? Could it be because of what he’s done in the White House? As you get a refresher on the national nightmare that has been Barack Obama’s presidency, keep in mind that the biggest difficulty in compiling it was limiting it to just 50 examples of corruption, dishonesty, and incompetence. 1) Because of Obama’s policies since he became President, 11,472,000 Americans have left the work force.2) “Fewer Americans are at work today than in April 2000, even though the population since then has grown by 31 million.” — Mortimer Zuckerman3) The number of Americans on welfare has hit record highs.4) A record 20% of Americans were on food stamps in 2013. 5) The almost 11 million Americans getting disability payments is now approaching the population of Cuba6) Our nation lost its AAA credit rating because Obama is spending so much money. 7) Not only was Cash for Clunkers a wasteful government program that “cost $1.4 million for every job it created and did little to reduce carbon emissions,” destroying the “clunkers” helped dramatically jack up the cost of used cars for the rest of the country. 8) After BP had a huge oil spill in the Gulf, Obama not only bungled the clean-up process, he slowed oil production from other companies that had done nothing wrong which led to higher oil prices. 9) Obama has helped drive up the cost of gas by blocking the Keystone Pipeline. 10) When he was running for office in 2008, Obama claimed that, “Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes.” He lied. 11) Through 2013, the Obama Administration had imposed new regulations on businesses that cost 46 billion dollars a year.12) Taxpayers lost 25 billion dollars on Obama’s bailout of General Motors and Chrysler. Chrysler isn’t even an American company any more. It’s now owned by an Italian company, Fiat. 13) When he was running for office, Obama called Bush “unpatriotic” for adding so much to the debt and promised to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term. Yet, the national debt is up 7 trillion dollars since Obama became President. That’s more debt than all U.S. Presidents from George Washington through Bill Clinton combined. 14) Obama’s administration gave guns to Mexican cartels that were used to murder hundreds of Mexicans and border agent Brian Terry. The Obama Administration has refused to cooperate with the investigation or hold anyone accountable for that illegal behavior.15) The NSA has spied on Americans under Obama.16) Under Obama, the CIA spied on the Senate. 17) Obama’s campaign contributors at Solyndra were handed 535 million dollars of taxpayer money that the Obama Administration knew they would never be able to pay back before they gave it to them.18) The IRS targeted Obama’s political enemies including Christian groups, pro-Israel groups, and most prominently, Tea Party groups. The Obama Administration has refused to cooperate with the investigation or hold anyone accountable for the illegal behavior. 19) Numerous donors to Mitt Romney were audited by the IRS after giving him large contributions.20) When the EPA and IRS were asked to provide emails requested by Congress as part of an investigation into their illegal activities, they’ve claimed over and over again to have lost the information because of “hard drive crashes.” Given that it’s quite easy to back up a hard drive and that they’re required by law to retain that information, it seems likely that they’re habitually destroying evidence to hide their illegal activities. 21) Veterans received poor health care and even died because of the incompetence and cover-ups of Obama’s VA. 22) Even Barney Frank admits Barack Obama shamelessly lied to the American people to get Obamacare passed – and lie, he did. He promised that Americans could keep their insurance plans, that they could keep their doctors, and that Obamacare would save the average family $2500 per year. Not only were all of those lies, Obama knew they were lies when he made those promises.23) Barack Obama has broken the law repeatedly by making at least 23 unilateral changes to Obamacare.24) Obama has been illegally trying to force Christians to pay for abortifacients via Obamacare.25) Obamacare has been a disaster that cost millions their insurance and sent health care costs spiraling into the stratosphere. 26) Obama is taking 700 billion dollars out of Medicare to put into Obamacare. 27) The website portion of Obamacare, healthcare.gov, was a non-functional disaster for months when it rolled out and Obama claimed he was completely unaware that there was anything wrong with it. 28) Instead of calming people down, Obama helped to turn Americans against each other racially be inserting himself into the Trayvon Martin case. 29) Obama created so much racial animosity by attacking the police when they had done nothing wrong in the Henry Louis Gates case that he had to have a ridiculous “beer summit” to try to undo the damage. 30) The Department of Justice failed to pursue a voter intimidation case against members of the New Black Panthers because they were black and liberal. Former DOJ official J. Christian Adams quit over the case and “accused his former employer of instructing attorneys in the civil rights division to ignore cases that involve black defendants and white victims.”31) George W. Bush quit playing golf in 2003 because he didn’t want the mother of some fallen soldier to see the Commander-in-Chief out playing golf. He also said he thought playing golf during a war sent the wrong signal to the American people. Through June of 2014, Obama was up to 177 rounds and is on pace to play twice as much in his second term as his first term.32) Obama chose tax cheat Tim Geithner to be his Secretary of the Treasury and then has had the audacity to spend his whole presidency pushing for higher taxes. 33) After promising to unite America when he was running for office in 2008, Obama has been the most hyper-partisan President in decades. 34) Despite the fact that Barack Obama claimed to believe that marriage should be between one man and one woman when he was running for President in 2008, his Department of Justice asked states attorney general to refuse to defend their states’ bans on gay marriage in court. 35) The Department of Justice has worked overtime to help increase voter fraud by fighting against voter ID. This is despite the fact that you need ID to buy alcohol, drive a car, fly on a plane or even to use Obamacare. 36) He’s the reason why countless Americans have been groped, molested and harassed by the TSA, even though agents never caught a terrorist sticking their hand down anyone’s pants.37) He’s responsible for the dumbing down of our education system with Common Core. 38) We first landed on the moon in 1969, but because of Obama, we’re no longer even capable of going into space.39) His servile bowing to other world leaders is embarrassing and un-American. 40) Barack Obama engaged in an illegal war in Libya without the permission of Congress that helped turn that country into an unstable basket case run by radical Islamists. How bad is it? America, Libyans and the rest of the world were better off with Muammar Gaddafi in charge. That’s how bad it is. 41) Radical Islamist Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan “described himself as mujahedeen” and yelled “Allahu Akbar” as he murdered 13 of his fellow soldiers at Fort Hood. The Obama Administration labeled that as "workplace violence" rather than admitting there was a terrorist attack on his watch.42) He released 5 Taliban terrorists In exchange for deserter Bowe Bergdahl.43) Americans died at Benghazi because Obama’s administration didn’t take their repeated requests for additional security seriously.44) Russia annexed Crimea while Obama did nothing of consequence to discourage it from invading. That’s not a surprise for a President who is fond of throwing out “red lines” that don’t mean anything.45) Obama’s premature pull-out in Iraq and foolish refusal to get a status of forces agreement in Iraq left the country vulnerable and led to the terrorists in ISIS taking over a large portion of that country.46) Barack Obama unilaterally implemented the DREAM Act that Congress didn’t pass and illegally handed out work permits to illegal aliens. 47) Obama is threatening to bypass Congress and simply “legalize” millions more of illegal immigrants even though it’s illegal and unconstitutional and it hurts the American people and will further encourage even more illegal aliens to surge across the border.48) The fence on our southern border was supposed to be completed by 2009. The Obama Administration has made it clear that it doesn’t intend to finish it during his presidency.49) Barack Obama is deliberately creating a crisis on the southern border by refusing to deport illegal aliens crossing into our country. 50) For all practical purposes, Barack Obama has already unilaterally implemented amnesty in America because “at least 99.92% of illegal immigrants and visa overstays without known crimes on their records” aren’t being deported.

How’s that Nobel Peace Prize Working Out for You, Obama?

National Review ^ | August 8, 2014 | By Elliott Abrams
In the summer of 2014, the climate of international politics is sour: war, terror, confrontations. Negotiations — whether between Iran and the “P5+1,” Egypt and Hamas, or even trade talks among advanced nations — seem to be going nowhere. Democracy is in retreat in Latin America, the Middle East, and Asia; NATO has been severely weakened by the Ukraine crisis; Russian aggression is clear; American prestige and influence have diminished everywhere. And the oceans have not stopped rising! After five and a half years of Obama, not only in America but in much of Europe and Asia there is a palpable sense that the next U.S. presidential election cannot come too soon.With all this in mind, it’s worth remembering with contempt the following lines:

Obama has as President created a new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play. Dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts. The vision of a world free from nuclear arms has powerfully stimulated disarmament and arms control negotiations. Thanks to Obama’s initiative, the USA is now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting. Democracy and human rights are to be strengthened.Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world’s attention and given its people hope for a better future. His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world’s population.

Where’s that from? Tom Friedman in the New York Times? David Ignatius in the Washington Post? Nancy Pelosi at some Beverly Hills fundraiser? Valerie Jarrett at Obama’s birthday party?No: That is the actual Nobel Committee statement of October 9, 2009, revealing that the Great Man was about to get that year’s Nobel Prize for Peace.No amount of sarcasm will quite rise to the level the Nobel boys deserve, and anyway they aren’t listening right now: they are too busy this month denouncing Israel for defending itself. But world politics is so serious, and so depressing these days, that one shouldn’t pass up the chance for a good laugh. Obama did not wish to be seen or judged as a normal American politician; he was above all that, and above crass considerations like national interests. He would heal the nation and the world. Of course in buying that self-regarding Obama nonsense the Nobel committee was trying to insult George W. Bush, but they are stuck with exactly what they said — quoted above.To be fair, it’s partly true: Obama sure has indeed “created a new climate in international politics.”

Even Hawaii Hates Obama Now!

The Daily Beast ^ | August 8, 2014 | David Freedlander Getting the president’s backing isn’t what it used to be—he looks set to go 0-2 on Saturday, with the two candidates he endorsed in his home state apparently headed for defeat.When Barack Obama vaulted onto the national stage a decade ago, part of his appeal was that he seemed to be from so many places at once. All corners of the country could lay claim to him: He was Hawaiian by birth, Illinoisan by choice, and Kansan by heritage, and he spent his formative years in New York City. He marched through the 2008 primaries by winning in both the deep red states that Democrats typically eschewed and urban centers populated by low-income voters and young progressives. Now, six years into his presidency and with his popularity fading, it seems Obama is having trouble finding a place to call home. In state after state that once called the president its favorite son, he is finding that his political advocacy is unwelcome. Consider Hawaii, where Obama was born, lived until he was 6, and returned to finish grade school and high school, and where he still vacations with his family every holiday season. In the Aloha State, Obama has endorsed and cut a radio ad for Neil Abercrombie, the incumbent governor. “He knew my parents before I was a twinkle in their eye, and he was one of the first people anywhere to step up and support me for president. So you could say that Gov. Abercrombie has had my back since before I was born,” Obama says in the unusually personal radio spot. “His commitment to Hawaii runs deep, just like mine. I value him as a partner, and because of Neil’s work, Hawaii’s best days are ahead.” But despite Obama’s testimonial, Hawaiians seem set to turn their backs on Abercrombie; he trailed his previously little-known opponent, state Sen. David Ige, by nearly 20 points ahead of Saturday’s Democratic primary. That same day, Brian Schatz, whom Abercrombie appointed to the Senate in 2012 to replace the legendary Daniel Inouye, will face challenger Colleen Hanabusa, a congresswoman long groomed to be Inouye’s successor. Obama voiced his support for Schatz all the way back in March, calling him “The right choice to continue delivering for Hawaii,” and at the time The Washington Post called the endorsement one of the few big enough to move the needle in a competitive election. But a poll released Monday gave Hanabusa a 3-point lead, after she had trailed for much of the campaign. Political analysts say Saturday’s election could end in a result rarely seen in American politics: an incumbent president making not one but two endorsements in a primary in his home state (or one of them, at least) and losing both. “This is certainly a place where his endorsement remains welcome,” said Neil Milner, a Hawaii-based political consultant. “No one here hides from the fact that they know Obama. But [his endorsements] have certainly not moved the needle in any real way.” To be sure, Obama has not spent much political capital or much time out on the trail for Abercrombie or Schatz. And Hawaii politics has a tendency to mostly ignore mainland trends and issues. But it’s not just Hawaii where the Obama touch isn’t turning candidacies into winners. In Illinois in 2010, Mark Kirk became only the second Republican in the state since the 1980s to win a U.S. Senate seat, taking Obama’s old seat. The president campaigned and fundraised for Kirk’s opponent, state treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, but it was not enough to overcome a Tea Party wave and the stench of then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich auctioning off the seat to the highest bidder. But now Obama’s old stomping grounds, a state where Democrats enjoy a 15-point registration advantage, is in danger of becoming decidedly purple. The incumbent governor, Pat Quinn, whom Obama backed in 2010, is trailing his Republican opponent by double digits. According to Paul Green, the director of the Institute for Politics at Roosevelt University and a political analyst for WGN Radio, Obama was never one to wave the pompoms for his fellow Illinois Democrats, and that hands-off approach means that he does not have much sway when election time comes. “He has never been a party guy. He’s not a rebel, but it is just like it is down in Washington. He is a University of Chicago guy. He’s aloof,” Green said. “He is not a schmoozer. He is good at it, but he doesn’t like it.” This notion of Obama the outsider is what carried him to the White House, but it also helps explain why he struggles to give much boost to his chosen candidates. That holds true for Hawaii, where, according to Colin Moore, political science professor at the University of Hawaii, what is noticeable to local politicos is not that Obama made two primary endorsements but that he made two primary endorsements that go against the Japanese-American political machine that dominates the islands’ politics. “The most interesting story here is that Obama is going against the old Inouye machine,” Moore said. “He is backing outsiders, and that is extraordinary, even though he is the president.” The same dynamic, in a more limited way, is playing out in New York City, which has a smaller claim to the president—he spent his last two years of college there and lived in Harlem briefly after school before decamping to Chicago—but which has made a bid on hosting Obama’s presidential library and is a city where Obama has mused aloud about moving to after his time at the White House is up. In 2010, Obama suggested that Rep. Charlie Rangel, whose tenure stretches back so far that Obama likely voted for him when he lived uptown, step down rather than face a series of ethics investigations. The suggestion became a talking point for Rangel’s re-election bid in 2010, then again in 2012, and then a third time in 2014. He won all three elections, in spite of the president’s apparent disapproval.

Independent Journal Review ^ | 8-8-14 | Michael Hausam
Garry Cobb played football for USC and then for 11 years with the Philadelphia Eagles. He is now running for New Jersey’s 1st District seat as a Republican, and his explanation of why he is no longer a Democrat is very compelling. Explaining that he kind of discovered that he was Republican due to his upbringing, he said that the massively negative effects of Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty had the most impact: This was an incentive for the man to leave the home and it’s destroyed African-American families throughout the country. I didn’t realize it but as I started thinking about it and growing up, because as a kid going to college, you know I was all into the Democratic Party and everything; then I started realizing they helped destroy our communities and we’re supposed to be celebrating electing these people. One of the towns in our areas, Camden, is still suffering. I want to put an end to this. He goes on to explain further how the Democratic party and its policies have impacted youth, the economy, and more. He has some not-so-complimentary things to say about the President as well. It’s refreshing to see a man in a position like Cobb’s so clearly explain why liberal economic and social policies are not as compassionate as many are led to believe…

Puget Sound Business Journal ^ | 8/8/2014 | Steve Wilhelm
The famed aircraft carrier USS Constellation set forth on its last voyage Friday, but this time towed by the ocean-going tugboat Corbin Foss. The 1,008-foot Constellation’s 16,000-mile journey from Bremerton will take the carrier around the southern tip of South America to Brownsville, Texas, where it is set to be scrapped.